The Liberation of Puerto Rico: A Theological Perspective- Colonial and Religious History

                      The Liberation of Puerto Rico: A Theological Perspective

                      Chapter 1-Colonial and Religious History

In order for us to be able to make any ethical or moral judgment on the present political and economic status of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, it is necessary to begin by examining the factors which led to the present situation.  I do not intend to provide a detailed history of Puerto Rico, but rather a general overview that hopefully will provide us with the foundation on which  we can begin to build an ethical assessment of the issue at hand.  I suspect that some well-intentioned people may believe that it is not necessary to speak about history in order to make a moral judgment on a given issue.  I, however, contend that ethical judgments should not take place in a vacuum. This is especially true in the case of Puerto Rico.  It is essential to examine the historical background in order to relate it to ethical concerns.  The combination of the historical and the ethical is the basis on which I advocate the liberation of our beloved island of Puerto Rico.

                                                             Colonial Background

Since liberation and self-determination constitute the central theme of this thesis, it is necessary to realize that Puerto Rico's push towards self-determination goes back to the year 1508 when Juan Ponce de Leon established the Spanish occupation of the island.  From that time to the present, the people of Puerto Rico have not been able to enjoy complete freedom from external powers. Throughout Puerto Rican history, the thrust towards self-determination has been manifested in different ways.  Many Puerto Rican leaders have risen to bring this concern before the world community.  What follows are some of the important events that relate to this thrust for self-determination.

At the time that the Spanish government began to occupy Puerto Rico, the island was relatively poor in resources, especially gold (James Dietz, ed. Puerto Rico: Class Struggle and National Liberation. Riverside: Latin American Perspectives, 1976, p.3).  The indigenous people (Tainos) were used by the Spaniards in order to extract what small amounts of gold the island, formerly known by its indigenous name Boriquen, did have.  Soon afterwards, the economy came to be based on sugar production, and black people were imported from Africa to work for the benefit of the Spaniards.  It should be noted that the main reason for the exportation of slaves into Boriquen was that the native indigenous population was decimated in the effort to extract the gold.

For the next three centuries, Puerto Rico was Spanish in just about every sense of the word.  Spain imposed not only her language as the vehicle of communication, but also her culture and religion.  In that respect, it is safe to say that Puerto Rico, like many other areas of what today is known as Latin America, was an extension of the Spanish Empire.  It could be considered as a Spain in the West.

In 1812, the Spanish government enacted a constitution that gave the Spanish colonies some representation. This contribution, however, was abolished by King Ferdinand the VII after Spain had been involved in war with France and driven out the French armies.  Subsequent revolt in Spain forced Ferdinand to reinstate the
constitution of 1812.  Puerto Rico was once again given the right to elect representatives to the Spanish Courts.

After several attempts at reaching autonomy through the legal channels (the courts), many Puerto Ricans had become dissatisfied and resorted to other means to achieve their goals.  For the first time in 1838, there was an attempted uprising that had as its chief aim to proclaim Puerto Rican independence from Spain.  The leaders of this uprising were Andres Viscarrondo, Buenaventura Quinones, and several others.  The plan failed because the Governor, Lopez de Banos, learned of the plan and the leaders were arrested.  Soon thereafter, Buenaventura was discovered hanged in a cell in El Morro.

It was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century that the independence movement began to take shape and form.  During this period, the Puerto Rican economy and population expanded rapidly, and the independence movement began to oppose both slavery and the harsh colonial rule (Dietz, p. 4).  Inspired by Dr. Ramon Emeterio Betances, an early Puerto Rican revolutionary, an uprising took place in the town of Lares on September 23, 1868, which claimed the short-lived Republic of Puerto Rico.  This insurrection was was savagely and quickly put down by Spanish troops, but the Grito de Lares ( Cry of Lares) has remained a continuing symbol of the independence movement to the present.

It is correct to say, in spite of its apparent failures, that the independence movement in Puerto Rico in the latter half of the nineteenth century was not without its positive consequences.  In 1869, the promulgation of a new constitution in Spain gave Puerto Rico the right to elect deputies to the Spanish Courts.  Then in 1873, slavery was officially abolished on the island.  Finally, in 1897, under the pro-autonomy party of Luis Munoz Rivera, a new government was formed.  Under that charter, Puerto Rico became a sovereign nation which Spain could neither cede nor sell without the consent of the Puerto Rican people.

In 1898, the United States went to war against Spain.  Spanish troops in Cuba, at that time a colony of Spain, were defeated.  American troops began to occupy the Philippines, which were also under Spanish control.  Then in July, American troops occupied Puerto Rico. In September of that same year, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris by virtue of which Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States.  An American general was named by Washington to govern the island. In this sense, Puerto Rico became "war booty" for the United States (National Division Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church. Puerto Rico's Search for Self-Determination. Philadelphia: 1979, p.1).

Immediately thereafter, the United States government passed the Foraker Act which resulted in the setting up of civil government.  Charles H. Allen became the first civilian governor under the colonial rule of the United States in 1900.  Although the Puerto Rican House of Delegates sent to Congress a memorandum making clear their opposition to American citizenship, this overture was ignored by the government of the United States. In fact, what the American government did in 1917 was to pass the Jones Act, by which the people of Puerto Rico became citizens of the United States.  It is most ironic that this act was passed a month before the United States became engaged in the First World War.  Because of the act, Puerto Rican young men became eligible for military conscription.

Note should be taken of the fact that the Jones Act granted the island a two-chamber legislature which was elected by universal male suffrage and consisted of a nineteen-member Senate and a thirty-nine member House of Delegates.  However, the President of the United States and the Governor appointed by him still held veto powers, and the United States Congress still retained the power to override acts of the island legislature.  The island, in other words, continued to be an unincorporated territory of the United States, and its final status was still to be determined.  The fiscal and economic provisions of the Foraker Act remained virtually intact, but the powers of the United States were separated and individual rights were guaranteed.  The Federal government reserved all powers relating to defense, immigration, the customs,the post office, and certain other governmental functions (Federico Ribes Tovar, A Chronological History of Puerto Rico. New York: Educational  Publishers,  1973, p 431).

It was rather clear by this time that the government of the United States had no intention of returning the island to its people.  The shape of the island in terms of its social, political, and economic structures was beginning to be manifested through the steps which the United States government was taking to maintain colonial rule.  Undoubtedly, the United States was preparing itself, even at this early stage, to subject the people of Puerto Rico to subjugation.  In other words, the mechanism by which Puerto Rico would become a perpetual colony of the United States was already at work.

In March of 1915, the Socialist Party of Puerto Rico was founded in Cayey.  This took place at a worker's congress which was presided over by the labor leader, Santiago Iglesias.  This organization demanded worker's rights.  There was a very loose affiliation between this organization and the Socialist Party of the United States, but the link disappeared between 1920 and 1924.  It has been conventionally accepted that Iglesias initiated the organization of labor in Puerto Rico.  However, militant organizations were active before the arrival of Iglesias in 1896.  Strikes had taken place, and groups of urban handicraftsmen-printers, tinsmiths,carpenters, cigar makers, painters, shoemakers, and others had been introduced clandestinely. Iglesias's role was more catalytic than fundamental, accelerating and consolidating elements already in motion (Dietz, p. 19).

In 1922, the Nationalist Party was organized in Rio Piedras as at a constituent assembly held at the New Theatre. This party was formed as a result of the break that the independence-oriented wing of the Union Party made when that party adopted the Free Associated State formula for Puerto Rico and dropped the alternative of independence from its program.  Some of the dissidents called an assembly of the Nationalist Association which was held in Ponce in April of that year.  It was there that the new organization was planned.

The new party's program was the overthrow of the American colonial regime, immediate independence, and the proclamation of the Republic of Puerto Rico.  The Nationalist Party was seeking to establish in Puerto Rico a free, sovereign, and independent republic.   Under the leadership of Pedro Albizu Campos in 1930, the Nationalist Party adopted a more militant policy and carried out armed revolutionary acts. Albizu is always remembered in Puerto Rican history as the great symbol of Puerto Rican nationalism.

During this period, the push for worker's rights and self-determination continued.  In 1925, Santiago Iglesias was appointed Secretary of the Pan American Labor Federation.  Since the offices of the Federation were in Washington,  Iglesias had to leave Puerto Rico for a time; nevertheless, he continued to advise and assist the Socialist Party of Puerto Rico and the island labor party.  He also vigorously supported measures of interest to Puerto Rico and its workers before the Congress of the United States and the Federal government.

The Nationalist Party carried forward the demands for Puerto Rican independence  throughout the twenties and thirties.  Political independence was a non-negotiable demand for the Nationalist Party and was, in fact, its expressed reason for existence.  Many in this party, including Albizu Campos, advocated for armed struggle against American colonialism.  Albizu and other Nationalists, not willing to abide by the "rules of the game," were subject to escalating repression beginning in October of 1935 with the Massacre of Rio Piedras, where the Nationalists were viciously attacked.  Albizu Campos, was in fact, to spend many years imprisoned in the United States and Puerto Rico for various "crimes" (Dietz, p. 5).

On October 24, 1935, a general student meeting was called at the University in Rio Piedras in order to protest certain remarks which Albizu Campos was said to have made about the University students.  The Nationalists called a meeting in Rio Piedras to prevent the student meeting.  A clash took place between the Nationalists and the police.  One policeman and four Nationalists were killed, and forty persons were wounded.  At the funeral of the Nationalists, Albizu Campos made a passionate speech against the police, against Carlos A. Chardon who was then the Chancellor of the University, and against the Liberal Party. The Puerto Rican Liberal  Party had been founded in 1932.  Its major goal was to establish the recognition of Puerto Rico's sovereignty in the most rapid and practical manner possible (Tovar, p. 454). They, however, were making these demands within the framework of the existing colonial relationship.  In other words, they advocated for a peaceful transition to self-termination, unlike the Nationalists who supported armed struggle as a means of overthrowing the colonial regime.  In his speech, Albizu accused Chardon, the police, and the Liberal Party of making plans to assassinate the Nationalists.  At the end of his speech, Albizu asked those who were present to swear that assassinations would not be allowed to continue in Puerto Rico (Tovar, p. 466).  At its general assembly on December 8, 1935, the Nationalist Party, under the leadership of Albizu, decided not to participate any longer in the "colonial" elections, but to boycott them and demands were made that the United States withdraw peacefully from Puerto Rico, and declared that it would "appeal to the arms" if   America didn't do so; and also declared that every militant of the Nationalist Party had to be on military service; and that the party would float a loan in the island and abroad in order to cover the costs of the struggle (Tovar, p. 467).

On February 13,  1936, Colonel Francis E. Riggs, Chief of the Puerto Rican Police was assassinated by two young Nationalists, Hiram Rosado, and Elias Beauchamp.  This was part of a Nationalist policy of "revolutionary justice."  Rosado and Beauchamp were arrested and slain within a few days.  The police explanation of their deaths were unconvincing.  The assassination of Colonel Riggs brought about a certain change in U.S. policies.  It was decided to gradually replace Americans with Puerto Ricans in certain posts.  But they were required to take firm actions against the Nationalists (Tovar, p. 468).

The Nationalist Party had announced a commemorative parade for Palm Sunday of 1937 and had received the necessary permit from Mayor Jose Tormos Diego.  One hour before the parade was scheduled to start,
the Mayor informed its organizers that he was revoking the permit.  The atmosphere was tense.  The police brought reinforcements from other places in the island.  The Nationalists started their parade all the same, unarmed; the men in their black shirts and white pants, the women in white, some bringing their children.  They were opposed by one hundred and fifty armed policemen.  When the Nationalists began to march, singing La Borinquena, the Puerto Rican national anthem, the police opened fire, killing nineteen persons and wounding more than a hundred, including bystanders.  The Mayor of Ponce had been willing to grant the permit for a peaceful demonstrated, but the Governor, Blanton Winship had ordered him to cancel the permit and had ordered the police to adopt extreme security measures (Tovar, p. 421).

An investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union proved that the police were responsible for the killings. It also established that the Puerto Rican government had violated the citizens' civil rights.  It is still not certain who fired the first shot.  But the police had fired at the crowd with machine guns for fifteen minutes. The number of the dead finally reached twenty-one persons.  According to some reports, more than one hundred and fifty persons were wounded.  About one hundred and fifty demonstrators were arrested.  Several years later, Rafael V. Perez, the District Attorney, exposed in a lecture the guilt of Governor Winship.  Acting under orders from the Governor, the Ponce Police Chief, Colonel Orbeta, had prevented the Mayor of Ponce from acceding to the Nationalists request and had adopted a "tough" policy, although the Mayor had felt that the permit should have been granted,  since the Nationalists had told him their members, including their corps of nurses, had already come from the countryside and wee already assembled for the march (Tovar, p. 472).

As the above developments indicate, a great period of nationalist and ant-imperialist agitation had begun in Puerto Rico, and especially in the wake of the Great Depression which hit the island in 1929.  The crisis had profound repercussions in the society of the colony, and nationalist sentiment as well as socialist teachings developed apace. The Nationalist Party presented a thoroughly economic program whose clear essence was the recovery of the national wealth from the jaws of foreign capital.  Albizu Campos and the Nationalist Party had chosen to have a direct confrontation with imperialism rather than to capitulate to it.  The results were the following: isolation from the Puerto Rican masses, recurrence of the personalistic leadership syndrome, massive imperialist repression, and the eventual dissolution of the Nationalist Party as a political force within the social reality of the colony.

It is worth noting that the nationalism of this period was a combination of radicalism and conservatism.  Albizu Campos had lent to Puerto Rican nationalism a thoroughly anti-imperialist character.  But at the same time, Puerto Rican nationalism had a Catholic, conservative component which was reflected in its notions about the family, religion, etc.  As such, we might say that this contradiction was simply a reflection of the class which it represented.  That is, the strategy of this nationalism was geared to achieving its goal without the support of the Puerto Rican masses, which undoubtedly was the greatest inadequacy and failure of this movement.

A new movement was born under the banner of nationalism in 1938.  It was the populist movement which resulted in the founding of the Popular Democratic Party in 1940 by Luis Munoz Marin.  It was a movement of the masses that became part and parcel of the two great currents of Puerto Rican nationalism of the twentieth century; on the one hand, the current whose goal was solely independence for the island, on the other, the socialist current, a result of class struggles carried out by the workers' movement since the turn of the century.  The Popular Democratic Party was able to preserve for a time the unity between these two basically antagonistic currents.  The one dealt more with the national question, while the other was more concerned with the social question.  In the case of Puerto Rico, the difference between the two questions was that one had to do with whether Puerto Rico would be able to determine its own national destiny or whether the national destiny of Puerto Rico was to be determined by the United States.  The other had to do with what were to be the economic conditions of Puerto Rico, especially in regard to the working class.

It was during this time that Franklin D. Roosevelt had attempted to extend the policy of federal minimum wages to Puerto Rico.  This move was met by resistance on the part of presidents of farmers associations, bankers and industrialists.  The reasoning behind this was that the imposition of federal minimum wages would ruin the Puerto Rican industries such as the needle trades and the sugar industry (Tovar, p. 475).

Concerning the Popular Democratic Party, its greatest opportunity came in the wake of the purge of the top leadership of the Nationalist Party by the United States government, which charged them with "conspiring to overthrow the government of the United States by force and violence (Dietz, p. 40). The road thus became wide open for the new party, which in addition to a pseudo-revolutionary rhetoric, had from its inception the support of the government in Washington. The party became, in effect, the imperialist substitute for the radical nationalism of Albizu Campos (Dietz, p. 40). I use the word "imperialist" to refer to this party in that it basically represented the interests of the government of the United States in regard to Puerto Rico.  The effectiveness of this movement was to be demonstrated by the colonial elections of 1944.

By 1945, the leaders of the independence movement had begun to reemerge within the Popular Democratic Party.  But in that same year, many of these nationalists were being expelled from the party because of its colonial orientation.  Many of those who were expelled came together in 1946 to form the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP). Ironically enough, the PIP advocated for independence through peaceful means. including participation in the elections. By this time, Albizu Campos, having been incarcerated in Federal Prison for his revolutionary activities in the 1930's, returned to Puerto Rico and reaffirmed his revolutionary position.  He also began to organize a resistance which culminated with the frustrated Nationalist revolution of 1950.

In the elections of 1948, the Popular Democratic Party became entrenched in Puerto Rican politics when Luis Munoz Marin became the first elected Governor of Puerto Rico. The party was to dominate political life in Puerto Rico until 1968.  From 1948 to 1950, Munoz initiated a campaign to bring United States industries in Puerto Rico on a tax-free basis.  This program was called "Operation Bootstrap."  It was designed to bring economic development to Puerto Rico. The program depended on the input of American investments. The large scale of light industry went hand in hand with a rapid decline in the sugar industry.  For Munoz, at least at that particular time, the question of Puerto Rico's political status was a secondary one to that of the goal of economic development.  It was his understanding that Operation Bootstrap provided, or at least represented, the solution for Puerto Rico's economic problems.  His aim was to establish a system that would provide for Puerto Rico a kind of autonomy that would give it the greatest degree of self-government  within the colonial framework.

On March 14, 1950, Dr. Fernos Isern, Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in Washington, submitted a bill to Congress for the establishment of a constitutional government by the people of Puerto Rico.  The proposed government would be one which would operate within the framework of a colonial relationship with the United States.  The Senate released a favorable report on the bill, emphasizing that it was neither a statehood nor an independence bill,  The Senate unanimously approved the report. The House of Representatives also approved the bill by making it known that the basic provisions of the Jones Act concerning Puerto Rico's political, social, and economic relationships to the United States would remain unchanged.  The bill became Federal Law 600 and was signed by President Harry Truman on July 4, 1950 (Tovar, p. 509).

The passage of Law 600 added one more factor to the growing discontent in Puerto Rico over the issue of the political status.  The mere fact that the bill was approved in Congress was a confirmation that the government of the United States had no intention of changing the colonial nature of its relationship with Puerto Rico.  As a result, a Nationalist insurrection erupted.  Nationalists launched attacks and were engaged with the military in Jayuya, Utuado, Arecibo, and Mayaguez.  The Republic of Puerto Rico was proclaimed in Jayuya which the Nationalists held for several hours before they were overcome by the National Guard in tough house-to-house fighting.  The revolt resulted in twenty-five deaths, hundreds of injuries, and at least one thousand arrests.  This revolt had taken place on October 30, 1950.

On November the 1st,  Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola made an attack on Blair House, the residence of President Harry Truman,  One of the Secret Service men was killed, and another wounded.  Torresola was also killed, and Collazo was wounded.  Governor Munoz Marin expressed indignation at the Nationalist act of violence which had occurred two days after the Nationalist revolt in the island. Collazo was subsequently tried and sentenced in 1952 to life imprisonment.

In March of 1952, a Commonwealth Constitution was approved by a vote of 374,000 to 84,000. Many of the Puerto Rican voters abstained to protest.  It is interesting to note the the word "Commonwealth" was translated into Spanish as "Estado Libre Asociado."  The literal translation of this would be "Free Associated State," but that did not reflect the full reality of what Puerto Rico came to be.  In terms of Puerto Rico, this term came to mean a state in which power resides unalterably in the people and which is not independent, but "associated with a larger political system"(Tovar, p. 518).  The truth of the matter is that Puerto Rico was not associated with the United States because of the will of the Puerto Rican people.  This association was the combined  result of the United States government usurping the island on the one hand, and on the other, a small group of people, namely those in the Popular Democratic Party, who did not in reality represent the interests of the Puerto Rican people, but rather sought to establish and maintain this kind of relationship because of the advantages that it offered them.

It is very easy to interpret the approval of the Constitution as an indication of the people's consent. However, those figures could quite well be indicative of something else.  They could be a reflection of apathy on the part of the people who did not vote.  Or they could also be an indication that those who did not vote did not do so because they knew full well that the elections were being carried out under a process that was designed to perpetuate the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States.  It is also possible that those who did vote did so on the basis of being misled into thinking that the government of the United States had the best interests of the people of Puerto Rico at heart. Whatever these figures indicated, it was quite clear by this time that the United States had no intention of relinquishing control of Puerto Rico,  at least not in a total sense.

In spite of what was taking place, the Nationalist movement refused to die. In other words, while the government of the United States was doing everything in its power to solidify its control over Puerto Rico, the Nationalist movement was doing everything in its power to move the colony towards self-determination. On March 1, 1954, four Nationalists from New York unfurled a Puerto Rican flag at the visitor's gallery of the House of Representative.  They were Lolita Lebron, Andres Figueroa Cordero, Rafael Cancel Miranda and Irving Flores.  Shouting "Long Live Free Puerto Rico,"  they shot at members of Congress and wounded five. They were arrested, tried, found guilty, and all were sentenced with each one, except Lolita Lebron, receiving twenty-five to seventy-five years in prison.  Lebron received a sixteen to fifty year term.

In the meantime, the economic development of the island was continued under the administration of Luis Munoz Marin. This large-scale development of Puerto Rico's economy by North American industry had a profound impact upon the whole society.  In the 1960's advanced technological industry came to the island. A large number of labor-intensive businesses were set into place.  Many of these were highly mechanized, highly polluting techniques, and required little labor power to function. While this was going on, the sugar industry continued to decline.  As a result, Puerto Ricans began to migrate in large numbers from the countryside to the cities and from the island to the United States.

In December of 1960, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution about "independence for colonial peoples and countries (National Division Board, p. 31). Through this resolution, the General Assembly proclaimed the need for the speedy and complete abolition of colonialism in all its forms.  During the session, the Assembly also approved a resolution defining self-government within an independent state, emphasizing that the associated territory should have the right to determine its internal constitution without external interference.  The Puerto Rican Constituent Assembly had in its draft of the Constitution reserved the people's right to amend this charter and the right to ask for changes in the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico.  This would supposedly be done on the basis of mutual consent, but the Congress of the United States had, in advance, prohibited any amendment that would be in contradiction with legislation governing the relationship between the Federal government and Puerto Rico ((Tovar, p. 548).

In 1967, a referendum was carried out to determine the attitude of the Puerto Rican people towards the political status of the island. The government of the United States had already declared that they were not bound to accept the results of the referendum as the criteria for which to determine the future relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States.  At that time, there were 1, 067, 349 registered voters. Of these, 707, 293 participated in the referendum.  425, 132 voted for the Commonwealth, 60.41 percent of those who participated.  274, 312, i.e. 38. 08 percent voted for statehood.  4, 248 (0.60 percent), voted for independence.  360, 056 electors, 33.73 percent of the electorate , abstained from voting (Tovar, p. 563). These results seem to indicate that the campaign waged against the referendum by those who favored independence was rather effective and that the great majority of those who advocated for independence abstained from participating.

What began to take place in Puerto Rico after 1967 was what I would call an intensification of the rivalry among the various movements, each calling for some kind or other of political status.  The Popular Democratic Party had begun to lose much of its popularity with the people on the island. In 1968, Luis A. Ferre and the pro-statehood New Progressive Party won the elections.  During this time, unrest continued in Puerto Rico.  Many American corporations suffered damages from sabotage.  Puerto Ricans continued to organize against American military presence on the island.  University students organized against the draft to serve in the armed forces of the United States.  The rural poor began taking over land, erecting shanty towns to protest inadequate housing.  This was truly a period of ferment in regard to the political life in Puerto Rico.

In November of 1971, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party was organized.  This party was, in reality, a continuation of the Pro-Independence Movement founded in 1959.  The prominent spokesperson for this party was Juan Mari Bras.  Besides espousing a Marxist ideology, it also became involved in the recruitment of working class people in order to gain a following.  The party had been known to give support to various worker's strikes.

In August of 1972, at the request of the Cuban government, the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations declared the right of Puerto Rico to be independent.  The resolution had been introduced by Cuba's Ambassador to the United Nations, Ricardo Alarcon.  Juan Mari Bras of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, and Ruben Berrios of the Puerto Rican Independence Party both considered the resolution "a tremendous step towards independence (Tovar, p. 584)." It was in that same year that the Popular Democratic Party under the leadership of Rafael Hernandez Colon.  This return to power, however, was to last for only four years, as during this period, the economic situation in Puerto Rico began to deteriorate. By January of 1975, inflation was already at 30 percent. According to official statistics, 17.1 percent of the population was unemployed.  By mid-1976, 70 percent of families on the island were eligible to participate in the food stamps program which had been instituted in 1974 by the United States Department of Agriculture. With the return of Puerto Ricans from the United States, the economic situation worsened.  Militant strikes by workers became more frequent.  Labor protest increased. In the meantime, international support for Puerto Rican independence continued to mount steadily.

In 1976, the New Progressive Party returned to power under the leadership of Carlos Romero Barcelo.  He reaffirmed his party's commitment to statehood. In the meantime, Gerald Ford, who was about to complete his term of office as President of the United States, introduced a bill calling for the annexation of Puerto Rico as the fifty-first state.  Two years later, the United Nations Decolonization Committee held a hearing at which all the major Puerto Rican political parties made a presentation of declarations.  The result of this hearing was the adoption of a resolution on decolonization which called for the full transfer of power to the people of Puerto Rico so that they could be free to choose their future without external interventions or control.  The following August, this same committee reaffirmed the 1978 resolution and requested the United States to begin to implement the resolution.

In November of 1980, Carlos Romero Barcelo was reelected as Governor of Puerto Rico. Once again, the party's commitment to statehood was affirmed.  Several months later, Vice-President George Bush, in a visit to the island, declared publicly that the Puerto Rican  people should begin to think in terms of statehood.  The mood of the Republican Party has been the same as that of the New Progressive Party, i.e. that Puerto Rico should be annexed to the United States by becoming the fifty-first state.

Though it is hard to say what percentage of the people of Puerto Rico favor independence, it seems to me that those who favor the alternatives do so for the most part, on the basis of not having sufficient information as to the nature of colonialism and imperialism.  In fact, I would venture to say that the majority of the Puerto Rican people are not as concerned with the political question as much as they are concerned with the issues of "bread and butter."  By this I mean that it seems that the average Puerto Rican seems to be more concerned with having food on the table and a roof over the head for the family.  If it is difficult to demonstrate that the people of Puerto Rico would prefer political independence, then it is possible to see by observation and interaction, that they favor cultural and religious independence.  As an example of what I am saying, the music which one hears upon entering the home of a Puerto Rican family would indicate that the Puerto Rican people, as a whole, desire to preserve their culture.  Additional evidence of this is that when Puerto Rican people come from the island to the United States, they make every attempt to affirm the culture by speaking to their children in Spanish and reminding them that they are to be true to the cultural heritage that they have received.  Even in the area of religion, one can easily detect the desire to maintain the culture intact.  For example, in many of the predominantly Puerto Rican Pentecostal churches in the United States, the young members (youth and children) are being constantly reminded that they should not accept the "modernistic" lifestyles of the "American" churches.  While cultural and political independence are not necessarily one and the same, I suspect that the desire for cultural independence is a manifestation of a subtle desire for political independence.  In that respect, it is appropiate to say that the people of Puerto Rico have been and are still struggling for emancipation.